Slow Diplomacy: Revisiting and Reappreciating Diplomatic Epistolography

This Forum Discussion explores the notion of slow diplomacy via an engagement with the tradition of diplomatic epistolography. Specifically, it examines an overlooked aspect of diplomatic practice operating beyond the instrumental, fast-paced, and solution-based exchanges of diplomatic communication. Our focus on epistolography shifts from letters as static artifacts and correspondences to letters as “silent envoys” and iterative performances that unfold over time and contribute to the communication of ideas as well as the formation of identity . We consider how the memory and relational awareness of the epistolary exchange open space wherein the diplomatic Self and Other unflatten, are reflected upon, and reimagined. We are also interested in the reception and generative influence these epistles have exerted through ideational awareness and recursive readings over time, shaping worlds by revisiting aspects of identity. In short, we aim to recover forms of diplomatic writing that have not been exhausted by speed and immediacy, and indeed forms of writing that work through time , often unpredictably and enduringly.